LMA introduces tracking service

Racing ahead - without a clear idea of competitor activity and strategy, no business can expect to command a lead in today’s competitive markets.

Intelligent marketing starts with market intelligence. Only with valid, current information can you overpower competition and grow.

But do all marketeers have access to competitor information?

Lewie Diasz, a chartered marketer in a recent article questions the usefulness of definitions that do not address the need for a competitive edge in marketing. He suggests that strategic marketing is ‘a process of creating superior customer value resulting in the creation of superior shareholder value and a sustainable competitive advantage’. He has a point.

The absence of a competitive edge makes for very dull marketing.

Any marketing plan that does not take into account the intent and ambitions of competitors is sure to run in to trouble, sooner or later. Most intelligent marketeers, already go to great lengths to obtain competitor and market information, but they have inadvertently perhaps, overlooked one very inexpensive and easy to access source of valuable competitor information, the newspapers.

The newspapers are full of competitor information. News of product launches, seasonal offers, corporate initiatives, CSR campaigns etc. speckle newspapers. They reveal much about each competitor’s plans.

An intelligent markeeter will find this news very useful indeed.

And since it’s published information it is in the public domain and therefore completely legal.

Although some companies do maintain media monitoring divisions, very few have devised systems to scientifically access, track, store or use this facile source.

Fortunately, a new media tracking service provides an innovative solution.

Lanka Monitoring Agency (LMA), provides a daily media tracking service with a live wed archive.

It tracks, sorts, scans and delivers by email ads and articles appearing in all 32 main newspapers before noon the same day.

Currently it tracks banking, leasing and finance, education, insurance, automotive, FMCG and telecom sectors.

In addition, it tracks and

catalogues all news relevant to each sector including state and departmental announcements.

While other companies, among them the global giant AC Nielsen, and local pioneer Survey Research Lanka, offer similar services, only LMA currently delivers daily and maintains a live wed archive.

Easy to access and use, LMA’s live archive is what makes this service worthy of notice.

Financial Management